What do you think, as well as the forum... we could set it up and use it to post things we find about Techostuff that doesn't really need its own thread...

Also... we can do more stuff with more methods of entry...

Any ideas welcome.

TBH anything that doesn't need a thread won't need a blog post.

I had, however, had an idea about havinga gamers blog, where people can talk about what games they've been playing, but again that could just be posted aswell.

Well yea, could use it for either/or lol

Well if anyone can see a good reason to have one, I don't see why not, but right now i can't see why.

Huh? It would be WAY easier to have Blogs for reviews instead of threads (Just look at IGN)....

They don't get lost, are easier to find and people can still reply to them. Having a forum based review system is just bizarre... A blog based system is easier to set up, MUCH faster working and a lot more replyable, and would draw more people here faster...which is kinda the whole point isnt it?

And it means that the posts are replied direct to the review, not onto some random Forum thread that is "dedicated" to it (I say that VERY VERY loosely because I know what people are like with threads going off course).

Anyway, I assume everything will have to be checked by Skillers anyway... Even though I would only be doing console reveiws... And IMO he should have no say in those because he barely plays them...

And when was the last proper review done? Reviews are planned to have their own part of the site when done.

Also, me checking stuff is for spelling and grammar, suitable content and sometimes factual errors, like the editor of a normal magasine...

*Magazine

Yeah, but they always send it back to the reveiwer to check it again, incase the editor has made a mistake aswell...

We haven't done any reviews because we've had nowhere to put them! And becuase they have there own place on the website, wouldn't it be easier to make it blog based? "Reviews" << Wow, all in one convenient place!

Your logic makes no sense... "Reviews are planned to have their own part of the site"...Well yes...Thus making it blog based would be much easier on the system and people would be able to tell one person's reviews from the others...I'm guessing You and Met will do most of the PC ones, Si and Aaron Hardware + Software, leaving me to do Consoles? It's pretty easily split up like that too... You know which reviewer is doing what.

Tbh, 9 times out of 10, most people's grammar and spelling is awesome. I mean, sometimes even editors miss errors. Look at things like New Scientist and AutoSport, both have areas dedicated to the mistakes in a previous issue....

*Americanz

You don't know what I plan for the site, and what you're saying is completely opposite to the original idea suggested. "Own part of the site" means there will be a reviews part and articles part etc, rather than all together in one big messy blog.

Plus, what is the problem with having moderated articles? It helps pick up on the errors people do make, or picks out sections that need to be rewritten if they don't make sense etc.

Its magazine over here in UK too.

Damn those Americanz corrupting us!

It's probably only magazine because the term was first used by some Americanz, probably (I don't think they had them 400 odd years ago).

If you'd of properly explained how you want the site, I would of been able to make a more educated explanation.

I am merely saying that if each of the reviewers has a blog, its easy for people to find and reply directly to the review... Than having to wade through many threads to find the one they actually want to reply too. I'm looking at it from a users point of view, not a moderator or admins point of view. Its got to be useable and flexible... Not complicated otherwise people won't bother at all...

Anyway... Whats the difference between reviews and articles? They seem pretty similar to me... And I said many seperate blogs for all the different reviers...Not all adding reviews to the same blog and making it a mess.

I never said there was a problem, I just don't think you should have the final say on what is posted, it should be the reviewer, I'm all for you reading it, and then sending it back with adjustments etc, but I'd prefer doing them myself, instead of you re-writing bits that I could make sound better on my own.

Personally I prefer to view things categorised by type and not person. As for commenting, the comments are planned to be on each individual article, or each article has it's own thread that is auto linked by the article, depending on what works best. Either way the user can go to the article and then click a button to comment.

As for moderation, if there's no big errors, just perhaps spelling or grammar, I would just fix those myself and publish it (what's the point sending it back because you missed a letter?) but for bigger things, like factual and comprehension errors, I'd send those back, to keep the article in the same style of writing as the original author.

Now that's the bit I have the problem with. You would publish it... It should be at the reviewers discretion, not yours to publish it. It should be published in the reviewers name and in their area of the site. I very much doubt any of us would make large factual errors, if we are writing a review, we know our shit (to put it bluntly)...

On another plus side, Si and Aaron could have the main base for a blog based review system up in less than a week... So we could have content ready to export straight into the site when its finally completed.

LOL i really dont care tbh whatever is easier or what mark decides to do. If you want more people to come to this forum magigy why not "plug your site" onto other forums?

So branched blogs... That's even more complex, giving a blog per person per section.

Right, the system I had planned goes something like this;

Stuff written -> Writer submits -> I read, make small (spelling) changes ->
a) Sent back to writer with changes suggested (like bits that don't make sense), basically reverts to first step.
b) Published, attributed to original author.

Note that the person writes it then presses a button that sends it to me, basically saying they wish it to be published, I then choose to publish or ask a bit to be re-written, if necessary (the chances of this are probably low, but still worthwhile). This system also safeguards against rubbish being posted if something goes wrong...

Also, the moderation step allows me to say anyone can submit articles without fear of stuff getting spammed, which is something I like the idea of.

I also plan for each writer to have a personal page with personal info and a button that shows you all their articles/reviews.

Though you may be right, adding a simple unsorted blog as a temporary placement might be good, give some stuff to put on the site straight away.

And ash, this forum originally started as a website, but the website died out because it was too hard to maintain (I had to manually create HTML pages for each article, took forever) and we just kept the forum, I've been meaning to bring the site back for a while new and improved, with streamlining.

So whats the rest of the site going to include? Btw, I know this is kinda ironic, but http://www.spcook.co.uk/author/Si/... I love the cloud on the left of the screen. That should be very high on the agenda, or people could have a personal preference to have a blog based system instead of this article system...

As far as moderating goes, you can have two layers of trust, people that can write and it goes up and people that write and then gets moderated by the admin/mods

Having anyone write might or might not be a good idea, it would give us more articles, probably, and wouldn't really be open to much abuse. If articles had to be passed by me first, only I would ever see the spam ones, and I could just ban people who abuse it.

Tags (the cloud thing) for reviews wouldn't really work so well in such a broad sense, as there isn't much you could really put. I was thinking have each article have associated systems (PC, 360 etc) and genre (FPS, RTS etc) that they could be filtered by. Though this might be getting a bit complex for the scope of this site. A tag system may work well, though, but the nature of articles would suggest simple filtering may be better.

As for Si's point about the trust thing, I considered something like that, but I figure it might aswell get a proof read anyway, just for the sake of it.

Hmm, you've inspired me to write some more about what I want now.

Ok maybe not tags for the actual reviews, but if each of the main contributors (By that I mean, Skillers, Si, Me, Met, Wigo, Aaron and anyone else who is high up the order or in the clan) had a personal gaming blog as well, that would probably work better with the Cloud idea. I'd like the idea of having a personal gaming blog... It would be an interesting venture... And it may make me use my personal blog more too!

Stop reading my mind. Now.

I had actually planned for some form of gaming blog, wasn't really sure about it and it's implementation, but thought it may be interesting.